2014 recruiting

247 and ESPN have both updated their rankings since the last edition, and with several new commitments around the conference there are plenty of changes in this week's recruiting rankings. Most notably, Nebraska finally kick-started their 2014 class with seven commits in the last two weeks after having just two previously, moving them up into the MSU-Iowa-Wisconsin tier where they belong.

Changes since last rankings:

5-31-13: Purdue picks up Greg Phillips.
6-6-13: Iowa picks up C.J. Hilliard
6-7-13: Nebraska picks up Drew Brown.
6-8-13: Penn State picks up Michael O'Connor. Indiana picks up DeAndre Herron.
6-11-13: Ohio State picks up Sam Nuernberger. Nebraska picks up Tanner Farmer.
6-12-13: Indiana picks up Alexander Diamont.
6-13-13: Illinois picks up Austin Roberts.
6-14-13: Rutgers picks up George Behr and Robert Martin. Nebraska picks up Trai Mosley and Zack Darlington. Iowa picks up Jyaz Jones.
6-15-13: Nebraska picks up D.J. Foster, Demornay Pierson-El, and and Mick Stoltenberg. Maryland picks up Andrew Gray. Purdue picks up Kirk Barron and David Blough.
6-16-13: Rutgers picks up Logan Lister. Michigan State picks up Vayante Copeland. Minnesota picks up Gaelin Elmore.
6-17-13: Northwestern picks up Nate Hall. Minnesota picks up Connor Mayes. Indiana picks up Wes Martin.
6-18-13: Illinois picks up Henry McGrew.

Chart? Chart:

*Full rankings and explanation here.
^The average of the average rankings of the four recruiting services (the previous four columns). The figure is calculated based on the raw numbers and then rounded, so the numbers above may not average out exactly.

NOTE: Unranked recruits are counted as two-star players.

On to the full data after the jump.

Dual-threat QB Zack Darlington of Apopka, FL (hometown of M's own Jeremy Gallon), has chosen Nebraska over offers from the likes of Virginia Tech, Arizona, West Virginia, Auburn, Ole Miss, and--perhaps most significantly--Ohio State.  According to an Orlando Sentinel article covering his committment, Darlington "picked the 'Huskers over Ohio State, much to the dismay of Buckeyes' head coach Urban Meyer and offensive coordinator Tim Herman, about whom Darlington could not say enough good things."  Darlington is a 4-star on ESPN and a 3-star to the other three. Here is a link to the Orlando Sentinel article.  

Future Non-Conference Opponent Recruiting Watch – Class of 2014

A big end of spring for Michigan future non-conference foes in the recruiting game is led by the Cincinnati Bearcats, who double their class size to 8 and surge to #38 in the 247 Sports rankings.  Colorado also gets on the board, while a couple offensive line additions to the BYU class come too late to factor into the updated 247 composite.  Now for a closer look at what happened, with bonus: recruits' city & state of origin added!

New verbal commitments since last update (May 26):

·         May 24: Colorado adds OL Isaac Miller  (not reported as of May 26)

·         May 28: Cincinnati adds DT Joel Thompson

·         May 29: Colorado adds LB Grant Watanabe

·         May 31: Cincinnati adds DE Spencer Williams and Raashed Kennion

·         June 6: Miami adds DE Mack Duffin, Hawaii adds OL Sully Wiefels

·         June 7: Ball State adds WR J-Shun Harris

·         June 8: Cincinnati adds OG Nathaniel Devers, BYU adds OL Austin Chambers and Chandon Herring

Composite Chart

Notre Dame (2014, 2015) – 10 commits, overall star average: 3.85

No changes for Notre Dame.   

Cincinnati (2017) – 8 commits, overall star average: 2.50

The big mover for this stretch is Cincinnati, which adds OG Nathaniel Devers, DT Joel Thompson, and DEs Spencer Williams and Raashed Kennion.  Scout rates Casey Gladney and Hakeem Allonce as 3-stars.

Utah (2014, 2015) – 5 commits, overall star average: 3.00

No gains or losses for Utah.  Scout rates Kenyon Frison and Raelon Singleton at 3-stars.

Arkansas (2018) – 4 commits, overall star average: 3.38

No changes for Arkansas.

Brigham Young (2015) – 7 commits, overall star average: 2.54

BYU adds OL Austin Chambers and Chandon Herring (who, with that name, really ought to have signed with a coastal team).

Colorado (2016) 2 commits, overall star average: 2.50

The Buffs finally get off the schnide with Texas linebacker Grant Watanabe and in-state OT Isaac Miller.

Hawaii (2016) 5 commits, overall star average: 2.16

Hawaii picks up a commitment from 3-star offensive lineman, and all-name team candidate, Sully Wiefels. 

Ball State (2016) 3 commits, overall star average: 2.17

Ball State gains the commitment of wide receiver J-Shun Harris.

Oregon State (2015) 1 commit, overall star average: 2.50

No changes for the Beavers.

N.T. Miami (2014) 1 commit, overall star average: 2.0

The Redhawks land their first commitment with Indiana defensive end Mack Duffin. 

UNLV (2015) 1 commit, overall star average: 2.0

No changes for UNLV.  247 Sports still refuses to acknowledge the commitment of JuCo offensive guard Doug Saeks.

Jack Torrance State (2014)

                Still no commits for the horrors.

Michigan's two recent pickups—including, y'know, a universal five-star, NBD—strengthen their position at the top of the Big Ten recruiting rankings. While the teams in the upper half of the conference are still adding commits at an acceptable rate, the bottom of the conference is, well, not.

But, hey, Indiana is on the board! Good for them.

Changes since last rankings:

5-15-13: Wisconsin picks up Billy Hirschfeld.
5-16-13: Northwestern picks up Blake Hance. Rutgers picks up Justin Herron. Wisconsin picks up Ula Tolutau.
5-23-13: Ohio State picks up Dante Booker. Rutgers picks up Kamren Lott.
5-26-13: Michigan picks up Jabrill Peppers.
5-28-13: Northwestern picks up Fred Wyatt.
6-1-13: Michigan picks up Chase Winovich. Penn State picks up Noah Beh.
6-2-13: Maryland picks up David Shaw.
6-3-13: Iowa picks up Omar Truitt.

Chart? Chart:

*Full rankings and explanation here.
^The average of the average rankings of the four recruiting services (the previous four columns). The figure is calculated based on the raw numbers and then rounded, so the numbers above may not average out exactly.

NOTE: Unranked recruits are counted as two-star players.

On to the full data after the jump.

Mike C. from TTB interviewed Paramus (NJ) Catholic offensive tackle Juwann-Bushell Beatty.  He talks quite a bit about the things he needs to improve, and I think it's good that these BCS players go into college knowing that they need to work on many aspects of their game.

(LINK)

http://touchthebanner.blogspot.com/2013/06/getting-to-know-juwann-bushell-beatty.html

UPDATE 2: Added Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Miami (YTM), and Virginia Tech. h/t leftrare for the assist. If you're looking for any more comparisons, just leave a request in the comments.

UPDATE: Added Penn State, Oregon, Florida State, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. h/t MGoAlexander for the assist.

To take nothing away from Chase Winovich as a player, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that a large part of our collective excitement at landing his commitment was the ecstasy of winning a[nother] head-to-head recruiting battle over Ohio State. Several tweets mentioned that Winovich is the seventh Michigan commit in the 2014 class who had an OSU offer.

This got me wondering how many OSU commits had Michigan offers, and whether we're stacking up as well against our other rivals and various national powers. So I did a little bit of checking around on 247 today. Chart? Chart. (Actually more of a table.)

(Stars are computed based on the 247 composite star rating. I may have missed recruits, so please feel free to let me know. Big Ten programs in italics.)

Of the programs I checked, only LSU and Texas are beating us in head-to-head recruiting for this cycle, but our overlapping targets are so few that I'm not sure we can really draw any generalized conclusions from that. With Da'shawn Hand and Malik McDowell still to drop, we have a good chance of winning the overall head-to-head against Les Miles at the end of the day. We'll probably "lose" the head-to-head against Texas, but as leftrare points out in the comments, that's largely the product of their Texas-centric recruiting.

As a general matter, the SEC is holding its own against us - obligatory caveat about small sample size for LSU and Georgia, but Tennessee and Alabama have had a lot of success poaching Midwestern recruits in recent cycles (see, e.g., Brian's front page post about this), and that trend appears to be alive and well in this class.

Notre Dame is also basically at parity with us, while we're pretty convincingly prevailing over Ohio State at this juncture. As always, lol sparty.

Winning head-to-head recruiting battles is important, obviously, because offers are often better indicators of future performance than star ratings. But they're also important as a means of deflecting the constant refrains of "recruiting doesn't matter, stars don't show up on the field," etc. The one aspect of recruiting that no reasonable fan can deny is that you want your program to land its first-choice talent and not have to settle for Plan B, C, or D. So far, Hoke & Co. have done an exceptional job of standing toe-to-toe with our rivals and nationally elite programs, and they've won significantly more battles than they've lost.